About Jay Margalus

Start your week off right with a Workshop 88 General Meeting! Next week, we’ll continue talking buildout projects. Also at the meeting next week: Me! So long as my car doesn’t crap out (again), leaving me stranded and crying in the driveway.

I sat in it for 20 minutes, despondent look on my face. Ask my wife.

ANYWAY.

If there’s anything you’d like brought up at the meeting, make a mention in the comments below or e-mail info@workshop88.com. For instance, I’d like to see the walls coated in gumdrops and the tables made out of candy canes & graham crackers.

This is a new series of posts tagged under #welcomingcommittee where we welcome new Workshop 88 members to the hackerspace community.

WELCOME to our two newest members: Greg Williams and Dawn Kuczwara. Greg and Dawn are both from the tech industry. I haven’t met them yet, but other people from Workshop 88 have, and vouch for their goodness.

Greg, I’m told, herds nerds for a living (not in his words). He has a forge and two anvils in his garage. My knowledge with forges and anvils stops at World of Warcraft, so I’ll be schmoozing with Greg whenever we meet to learn how to thoroughly meld and sunder shit. Preferably things made out of mithril, but one can’t be picky.

Greg also gave our group a hammer, and I can only assume it looked something like this. Thanks for the hammer, Greg.

Dawn is the head of (and I beg pardon for the generality) a “Girls in Tech Group” in Chicago. I’m not sure what the name of it is, but it sounds really awesome, and I might even have a few people interested in joining this group of ladies in tech. Someone told me Dawn tore a hole into our floor the size of the sinkhole in Guatemala, but what I think they meant to say is that she helped with some serious work on our new workshop floor. Thanks, Dawn!

Both Greg AND Dawn have managed multiple sci-fi conventions, so I can only assume their knowledge of Dr. Who is more extensive than my own. This makes me feel insecure, and slightly threatened.

Our new space is coming along quite nicely, and we’ve already found a neighborhood bar a block away that doesn’t mind selling us beer.

Join us Next Monday, July 12th, at 6:30pm for the second general meeting at Workshop 88. I’ve been told this is the address: “481 N Main St. Rear Building Unit B, Glen Ellyn, IL”. You’ll be better off mapping out the intersection of Pennsylvania and Main, Glen Ellyn like-a-so:

…and then following this video, which may be the first ever “how-to-find-a-hackerspace” Maker video ever created (update: new video, that wold make two):

I’ll be attending TEDx this Thursday, March 25th from 1-5pm at Wentz Concert Hall on the North Central College Campus (Plancast link). Some of the talks look interesting, particularly the ones from Todd Flaming and Geoff Rhyne (the future of information management, and the sustainable food movement, respectively).

Tickets are 25.00, and you’re all welcome to join me at Peanuts afterward for a beer and some discussion. Hope to see you there!

We’ll be having our first General Meeting at our new location on 1684 Quincy this coming Monday. Topics of discussion are on the agenda, which you can review and edit here. The minutes from the last meeting should be up soon here.

This will be our second-to-last meeting in the Boilerhouse (Rolland Center) on the North Central College campus before we move to our new location (new location details to come). The meeting starts at 6:30pm. We should probably send someone at NCC a thank-you and let them know where we’re moving). Here’s a map of where it’s all happening:View Larger Map

ANYWAY. Join us if you’re interested in drinking, hackerspaces, technology, or if you want to meet Dancing Guy. Just kidding. He won’t be there, but I may bust out in dance if the correct song plays. It’ll be a great time!